Ebola prompts WHO emergency

International declaration stops short of urging travel ban

By COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS

Posted: August 9, 2014 at 3:01 a.m.

Credit: AP
Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, left, speaks as she attends a church service at the Providence Baptist Church to mark the end of three days praying to stop the spread of the Ebola virus, in the city of Monrovia, Liberia, Friday, Aug. 8, 2014. Over the decades, Ebola cases have been confirmed in 10 African countries, including Congo where the disease was first reported in 1976. But until this year, Ebola had never come to West Africa. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)

LONDON — Facing the worst known outbreak of the Ebola virus, with almost 1,000 fatalities in West Africa, the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency Friday, demanding an “extraordinary” response — only the third such declaration of its kind since regulations permitting such alarms were adopted in 2007.